


Golden

by katenovak67



Category: Golden - Harry Styles (Song), One Direction (Band)
Genre: #HarryStyles, F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-15
Updated: 2021-02-15
Packaged: 2021-03-16 12:21:07
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,128
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29453718
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/katenovak67/pseuds/katenovak67
Summary: "Nature's first green is Gold,Her hardest hue to hold.Her early leaf's a flower;But only so an hourThen leaf subsides to leaf.So Eden sank to grief,So dawn goes down to day.Nothing Gold can stay."- Robert FrostReeling from a major loss, twenty year old Lia Lawrence is back in her hometown for the summer in a last ditch effort to rebuild her life. Racked with grief, she's accepted that happiness just isn't in the cards for her anymore. She's made her peace with it, but an unexpected meeting with a stranger could prove to be exactly what was meant to make her feel alive again. Thrown into the one thing she hadn't been looking for, a romance, Lia feels her life looking up. But her demons won't go down without a fight, and she soon learns she isn't the only one with skeletons in her closet. Life hurts, love heals. But like most things in Lia's life, her newfound contentment proves fleeting, and she finds herself faced with the fact that nothing lasts forever, and nothing gold can stay.
Relationships: Harry Styles/Lia Lawrence, Sarah Jones/Mitch Rowland
Kudos: 1





	Golden

I breathed in the warm air as I walked outside, closing the front door behind me. Even from here, a few miles from Easton’s Beach, it smelled like the ocean. It smelled like home.

_Home._

This was going to be hard.  
_It was a good choice to come back._  


The thought crossed my mind for what must’ve been the thirtieth time this morning, and I realized just how hard I was trying to convince myself it was true.  
Well, wether it was or it wasn’t, I was here now. I could sulk in my room and sleep the day away or I could try to make the best of it. While the first one was tempting, I’d chosen the latter. For the first time in, well, a long time.  


Lennon, my eighty pound German Shepherd, shook me from my thoughts as she yanked particularly hard on the leash in my hand.  
“Hey!” I protested, “Lennon, heel.”  
She paused for a moment, looked back at me, and went right back to pulling.  


“Okay, you’re walking me. Great.”  
I said the words quietly under my breath and tried not to think about the fact that I really, _really_ needed to follow up with the trainer I’d worked with a year ago when I first got Lennon. First found Lennon, actually. She’d been tied to a bench outside a gas station in Boston, left with nothing but her tag-less collar. Long story short, I’d checked with the cashier on duty and was told she’d been dropped their almost seven hours ago by someone with out of state plates who clearly wouldn’t be back. I’d picked her up, planning to bring her to the shelter the next morning.  


I smiled, looking at her in front of me. Clearly things hadn’t worked out that way. All leash-yanking aside, I’d argue picking her up that day was the best choice I’d made in a long time, and I was damn happy I did.  


Speaking of Lenny, it was a miracle I’d managed to find a place to stay in Newport that was dog-friendly, especially during the height of tourist season. Talk to any Newport local, hell any Rhode Island local, and they’d tell you they couldn’t stand the summer crowds. The tourists clogged up the roads, crowded the beaches and took up every possible parking space downtown. While the traffic was a pain in the ass, I’d always actually enjoyed it.  
Maybe that was just because I loved company. I loved getting lost in a crowd, being surrounded by people.  
It was up for debate in my mind if the truth of the matter was that I loved being around others or just hated being alone.  


When I first decided to come back for the summer, I’d hunted through Airbnbs and hotels, finally landing on quaint bed & breakfast conveniently close to downtown Newport. It was cute and comfortable, and thankfully willing to take pets. It would work for the first week or two, until I found a longer term place to stay for the next few months.  


As I walked down the street with Lennon away from the bed & breakfast, I realized just how close it really was to downtown. In just a few blocks I’d reached my old favorite coffee shop, Margaret’s. I used to come almost every morning before school when I was younger.  


The last time I was here was when I came home for-  


_Stop. Don’t think about that._

"For old time’s sake”, I said to myself, trying to put the previous thought out of my mind.  
I sought out somewhere to tether Lennon’s leash while I quickly ran in for a coffee. A telephone pole by the entrance seemed perfect, and I tied her leash to it, double knotting it for good measure.  


“Give me five, okay? Good girl. Don’t worry, I’ll get you something to eat”.  
She sat down on the sidewalk and I smiled at her as I turned to walk inside Margaret’s.  
I had a habit of speaking to Lenny like she was a person. A habit that made me look slightly crazy in public, but one I continued nonetheless.

As I waited in line to order, I fished around in my bag for my wallet. Unzipping it to find my debit card, I pulled it out and had the same thought I always did when I saw Aurelia Lawrence stamped on the front.  
_Why did it have to say my full name._  
I hadn’t gone by Aurelia since I was ten. The only person who ever really even called me that was my mother. She loved my name, she’d picked it for it’s meaning and was always telling me how beautiful it was.  


I think somewhere in the back of my mind it just hurt too much to hear it now.  
Regardless, I’d always been Lia to everyone else. It fit me better anyways, and it helped me make a distinct separation in my mind. Aurelia was the little girl who lived the first ten years of my life. Lia was entirely different. Lia had survived those that followed.  
They shared the same memories, but Aurelia and Lia were two different people.  
Sometimes I felt like they were from two different worlds. 

I made my way to the cash register, enjoying the scent of freshly baked pastries. I ordered an iced latte, remembering at the last minute to ask for decaf.  
You don’t want an issue today. Today is going to be a good day.  
If I told myself that enough, maybe it would be true. I hadn’t had a good day in what felt like forever, and the last thing I needed was to fuck it all up with a caffeinated drink.  
It was sort of pathetic to me when I thought about it, that something as small as an iced coffee could derail my day, but history told me that it just wasn’t worth the risk.

I finished my order with a ham & cheese croissant for Lennon, and moved to the front of the store to wait for it to be made.  
I took in my surroundings as I stood there. There were only two or three other people in the store, which surprised me for a Saturday morning in June. Maybe the fact that I was here at 11 meant I’d missed the rush.  


_What can I say, not a morning person._  


Never have been.  


I’d sleep until three in the afternoon if given the chance, which I’d actually been doing more often than not the last few months.  


_After Gen-_  


After everything happened.  


I’d dropped out of college that same month, I just couldn’t do it anymore. It wasn’t that I didn’t like it, I did. Actually, I loved it. I was an English major, the classes fascinated me and the college social scene was right up my ally. It was amazing, but after everything I just didn’t have the strength to show up every day, and it didn’t seem smart to keep spending the money when I wasn’t 100% _in._ I sort of hated that, when I thought about it. I’d never in a million years though I’d end up a college dropout. I tried not to be so hard on myself, but I always felt like I could do more. Be more than I was. I expected _more_ from myself, and dropping out of college was just one more thing I saw as a failure. 

But after Gen, being awake during the day, hell, getting out of bed at all, was just too much.  
But that was changing now. It had to. I was twenty years old and had no concrete plans for my life, no plans for my future, short or long term.  


_And that’s why you’re here. It was a good choice to come back._  


I needed to figure some things out. I needed to figure myself out.  
Newport was home, It was the place I was born and raised, the place I felt most like me. I thought that maybe, somehow, the place that made me who I was could help me find who I needed to be. 

“Lia”

The barista called my name and I walked to the counter to pick up my things. The croissant’s warmth seeped through the small paper bag and the scent wafted up to my nose.

_I am so getting major brownie points with Lennon for this one._

I made my way to the door, exiting where I entered, and stopped dead in my tracks.  
Lennon’s leash lay on the ground, broken. She must have chewed through it while I was inside.

_Shit._

I quickly reached down to untie the remainder of it, placing my coffee and the paper bag down and called out.

“Lennon! Here girl, Lennon!”

Nothing. My head flew left to right as I searched for any glimpse of her. Nothing. I took off running down the street towards the wharf, the center of downtown Newport. It was only a few blocks down, and this time of year was filled with bustling crowds, noise, and that oh-so-familiar scent of New England seafood wafting from the waterfront restaurants. I was certain that if Lennon had run anywhere, it’d been in that direction. 

I made it to Thames street, smashing the cross walk button about twenty times, which garnered me some quizzical looks from a few tourists also waiting to cross. I turned to them and asked if they’d seen a German shepherd. They hadn’t.

The light turned red and I ran through the crosswalk, making my way into the wharf.

_Dammit._

The crowds were bigger than I’d thought. It was a complete sea of people. There was no way I’d be able to spot her, never mind get to her, in this crowd. 

I stood in place, head on a swivel trying to catch a glimpse of her. What if someone took her? Oh God, what if someone bad had her? What if she’d run into the road and gotten hit?

_No, stop. You don’t know that. Relax._

My heart thudded in my chest as I pushed past body after body trying to make my way down the street. I passed shops and restaurants, all of which were familiar to me from my years here. I stopped people left and right to ask if they’d seen her, but no one had. 

_What the hell do I do?_

_What if I’d just lost her for good? What if I’d-_

My phone rang in my purse and I reached in for it, still walking further into the crowd. I didn’t recognize the number or the area code. I had a habit of not answering when I didn’t know who was calling, but for some reason today I did. 

“Hello? Is this, uh, is this Lia?”

The speaker, clearly a man, had an accent. Which I couldn’t quite make out yet, but it was there.

“Hi, yes. Who’s calling?”

“I’m, well, I suspect you’re looking for a big Shepherd right about now? Her tag says Lennon, and your name and numbers listed on it.”  
British. 

Relief washed over me as I stopped in my tracks.

“Yes, oh God, yes! Thank you, thank you so much. Where are you?” I asked, looking around foolishly as if he’d just appear. 

I could hear this guy smile through the phone as he spoke.

“I’m in the parking lot, the one behind that restaurant, um, the Black Pearl, I think it is. I’m next to a black Range Rover in the third row, you should see me”.

“Thank you! Okay, I’ll be right there.”  
I hung up the phone and took off towards the restaurant, pealing off towards a shortcut to the parking lot that would let me avoid some of the crowds. I got there and scanned the cars for the one he’d described.

Black Range Rover, Black Range Rover, Black R-

Found it.

I weaved through the parked cars towards the one I believed belonged to whoever it was I spoke to on the phone. As I got closer I could see someone, presumably the man, standing next to it, sitting by his side was-

“Lennon!” I called, perhaps a little too loudly as I seemed to have startled him. Her ears perked up and she looked in my direction, immediately panting and jumping up on me as I reached her. I knelt down to pet her as she licked my face with excitement. There was a rope attached to her collar that he’d clearly been using as a leash. 

“Oh thank God. Hi Lenny, hi girl. Don’t you ever do that again! You scared me I-”

I was doing that thing again, the thing where I talked to Lennon like she was a person. I glanced up at the man who was leaning against his car, a big smile stretched across his face, clearly amused. 

“Sorry” I said, standing up,  
“She scared the shit out of me. I tied her leash to a telephone pole while I ran into a store for literally like five minutes, she chewed through her leash and I’ve been running around looking everywhere and I- and I’m gonna shut up now. Sorry. Thank you.”

The smile across the man’s face broadened even more. Looking at him now, face to face, there was something familiar about him. I just couldn’t put my finger on it, maybe due to the fact that he was wearing a backwards blue baseball cap and sunglasses. He was tall, he had about three or four inches on me, so I guessed he was about 6 foot. He had thick, chocolate brown hair that stuck out in an artfully messy manner from his hat. Wearing a black hoodie and grey sweat-shorts, he looked almost like he didn’t want to be noticed.

Then he took the sunglasses off. And I knew why.

“No worries” he said, the British accent sounding more americanized than it did on the phone

“She’s a sweet girl, beautiful, too” He knelt down to pet Lennon.  
“And she know’s it” I said, a little breathlessly after coming to the conclusion I just had.

Harry Styles. The man kneeling in front of me, petting my dog, was world renowned rock star Harry Styles. I tried to play it off like I hadn’t realized, trying not to make him uncomfortable. This guy had just saved my dog, the last thing I needed to do was make things awkward, but I could tell he noticed the change in my expression and tone that I’d so quickly tried to hide. 

He laughed a little at my previous comment, still kneeling and petting Lenny. 

“Lennon, huh?” He said scratching between her ears. “Like the Beatle?”

“Like the Beatle.” I said, pretty surprised that he was entertaining any further conversation with me. 

“Lennon was a genius. I mean, he changed the world. He was a master of his art, but I have to say I’ve always favored McCartney.”

“Actually, so have I” I said smiling, relaxing a little. “Unfortunately I have a feeling this one would’ve been a little pissed if I’d named her Paul” I joked, motioning towards Lennon.

He laughed at that, and I felt any nerves that remained leave my body.

He stood up, and for the first time I really got a look at his eyes. They were sea green, funnily enough they seemed to be the same color as mine.

“I’m Harry, by the way” He said, extending a hand to me. I wondered if he was trying to be humble, or if my performance of complete ignorance to his identity had been better than I’d given myself credit for. Then again, I didn’t really think that there was anyone my age in today’s world who hadn’t at least heard of Harry Styles.

“I’m Lia” I responded, smiling and reaching my hand out to shake. When I did, I noticed his palms were sweating. 

“Well, Lia, you wouldn’t happen to know your way around here, would you?” 

“Actually, it’s your lucky day. I’ve lived here my whole life. Born and raised.”

That wasn’t _entirely_ true, the born and raised part was, but I hadn’t lived here in over three years. I moved to Boston when I was eighteen, and had only been back a time or two since.

_The last time I came back was for Gen’s-_

I blinked and shoed the thought away. 

“I’m looking for a restaurant, and Italian restaurant. It starts with an S… shit I’m drawing a blank on the name…” he pulled out his phone, most likely to try to find it, but I knew exactly what he meant. 

“Sardella’s” I said, smiling. “It’s- it’s great there.”

 _January. Ten years ago. Snow on the ground. My birthday. Mom had thrown me a surprise party there. The last of my birthday’s I’d spend with her._  
I used to love it there when I was younger. It was my favorite place to go out for dinner on a special occasion. They had the coziest fireplace-lit dining rooms during the winter and pretty outside seating in the summer. Not to mention the pasta was to die for. The fact that I hadn’t been back since that night a decade ago was astonishing.

“How would I get there?” he asked, “I’m supposed to meet some friends, I’m running a little late but I’ve got no clue where it is.”

“Oh, yeah, no problem. It’s a few blocks up the street. You’d continue on Thames for about 5 minutes and turn right at the visitor’s center. If you keep going up the hill just past it, you’ll reach a church-”

I could tell I’d lost him.

“You know what, it’s close, I can walk you up there. I mean, only if you wanted-” I quickly added, hoping he didn’t think I was some crazy undercover fan trying to get her five minutes of fame with him.

He smiled, running a hand through his hair. 

“That would actually be great. I hope I’m not putting you out”.

“Not at all” I smiled back, “anyways, it’s the least I can do” I said, nodding towards Lennon.

He handed her makeshift leash over to me and I began walking out of the parking lot and back towards the main road. It was odd, how calm I felt. I was walking next to, literally, an A list celebrity. And yet he seemed so unnaturally normal. In the short conversation we’d had, he seemed like a person. A real person, not just some hollow figure you saw in magazines and heard on the radio. I didn’t really know what to make of him, but some feeling in my gut told me I was going to find out.


End file.
